Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Poetry Tag: Betsy Franco is IT

Janet Wong started off this last week of Poetry Tag with her poem, “Night Garden.” Now, she has tagged Betsy Franco who writes, “To take this game of tag in a different direction, I've included a poem from my YA novel, METAMORPHOSIS, JUNIOR YEAR, illustrated by my son Tom. In the poem, my protagonist, Ovid, compares his friend's shuttle between divorced parents to Proserpina's shuttle between Ceres and Hades in the myths. The connection to Janet's enticing night garden poem is nature, and darkness… of Hades, this time.” Here is an excerpt from Franco's compelling myth-based novel-in-verse, along with the art by her son, Tom.

Five fun facts about Betsy Franco*she lives in California*she has written over eighty books for children and young adults, including picture books, poetry collections, and nonfiction*she has three sons, James, Thomas, and Dave--two actor/​writers and a sculptor/​illustrator*her son, James Franco, has talked about his mom’s poetry on “The David Letterman Show”*she acts in a comedy troupe called Suburban Squirrel

Look for these selected poetry books written or compiled by Franco:*Things I Have to Tell You: Poems And Writing by Teenage Girls (Candlewick, 2001)*You Hear Me? Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Candlewick, 2001)*Mathematickles! (McElderry, 2003)*Counting our way to the 100th day (McElderry, 2004)*Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers (Candlewick, 2008)*A Curious Collection of Cats (Tricycle Press, 2009)*Messing Around the Monkey Bars and other School Poems for Two Voices (Candlewick, 2009)*Metamorphosis (Candlewick, 2009)

About Me

Sylvia Vardell is a professor and author of the ALA bestseller POETRY ALOUD HERE, also POETRY PEOPLE, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION, and the co-editor of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY series (for K-5 and for 6-8), as well as the first digital anthologies of poetry for young people, the POETRY TAG TIME series-- all in collaboration with poet Janet Wong. Vardell is also the poetry columnist for ALA’s BOOK LINKS magazine. A frequent speaker at conferences, Vardell chaired the NCTE Poetry Award committee and has served as a consultant to the Poetry Foundation.